CONFLICT MANAGEMENT IN HUMAN RESOURCE
Conflict management is understood as the solving and resolution of a disagreement between two or more parties and at the same time maintaining fairness and upholding each of the participating parties’ dignity and respect. In conflict management, it is important for the involved parties to agree to the final decision made by the mediator; otherwise the whole desired result will not be achieved, or will at least be compromised.
With this knowledge therefore, it is easier to understand the cost of conflict in any misunderstanding, as this is the economic damages that result from disagreements between two or more parties. Cost of conflict is mainly calculated in terms of the economic cost since it is more realistic and constant, unlike in a case whereby the cost of conflict is looked at in terms of social, psychological or even developmental changes and damages that consequent from the conflict after its resolution. In the recent years, there has been a lot of business and financial conflicts all over the world, and this has especially been triggered by the inconsistent financial condition of the world economy, especially with the constant fluctuation of the dollar (Budjac, 2006, p. 107). This has led to financial unrests, and as companies and Governments form all areas across the world declares new policies and strategies to run their institutions, conflicts will more often than not, result. A good example is the United States’ conflict between the New Jersey’s lawmakers and the democratic citizens.
In the conflict between the New Jersey lawmakers vs. the United States’ citizens, the lawmakers (who represent the US government) had approved and agreed to a rollback for an approximated 750,000 current and retired civil servants, and this was one of the biggest failures in the recent and recorded times of Government’s civil servants in the United States. This was considered to be one of the worst policies that Governor Chris Christie ever passed while in office. This led to a lot of social unrests among the citizens and especially to the republicans and a few democrats that resulted to demonstrations and chants all over the state especially bearing in mind that Mr. Christie is a Republican by affiliation, though he however defended the move by saying that they as the law makers passed the bill in an attempt to bring changes in the already unsustainable economic system in the state.
In the bill, the civil servants were expected to contribute in a fairly high rate to some of their basic requirements in employment such as health insurance and pension, and to the already retired, their cost of living would be undermined through lack of some basic resources that were already being provided to them such as lower taxes, housing allowances etc, and lastly, the retirement age was expected to be revised. By doing this, Governor Christie explained that the state was planning to save well over 132 billion dollars for the next three decades (Perez-Pena, 2011, Para. 3). However, as much as most US citizens as well as economists from not only the United States but other regions as well saw it as a counter-plan for the economic crisis, they condemned the fact that the burden ended up in the taxpayers’ pockets.
REFERENCES
Perez-Pena, R. (2011). New Jersey Lawmakers Approve Benefit Rollback for Work Force. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/24/nyregion/nj-legislature-moves-to-cut-benefits-for-public-workers.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
Budjac, B. (2006). Conflict Management: A Practical Guide to Developing Negotiation Strategies. New York: Prentice Hall.
Maravelas, A. (2005). How to Reduce Workplace Conflict and Stress: How Leaders and Their Employees can protect their Sanity and Productivity from Tension and Turf Wars. Pompton Plains, NJ: Career Press.
